Why do Canadians vote the way they do? For more than 40 years, the primary objective of the ongoing Canadian Election Studies (CES) has been to investigate that question - to explain what makes people decide to vote (or not to vote), what makes them decide who to support, and why parties gain or lose ground from one election to another. After more than four decades of gathering and analyzing data, principal investigators of the CES come together in this volume to document the history of these surveys and consider their future.

This wide-ranging collection of essays provides useful background and insights on the relevance of the CES. Contributors outline how the CES project began and how far it has come, assess the quantity and types of data that have been collected, and explore the theoretical and methodological developments that have transpired since the Studies' inception. Looking toward the future, they discuss what we have yet to investigate, highlight the challenges that lie ahead, and lend some long-range perspective to the debate about where to steer the CES in the years ahead.

Mebs Kanji is an associate professor of politicalscience at Concordia University. Antoine Bilodeau isan associate professor of political science at Concordia University.Thomas J. Scotto is a reader in government at theUniversity of Essex.